David Nicolas Parel

Born in 1978 in Annecy, David Nicolas Parel is a Franco-Swiss photographer. He lives in Geneva, Switzerland.

The artist draws his inspiration from the backstage of bodybuilding. Artists, Diane Arbus and Jane Evelyn Atwood (who photographed the backstage of prostitution during the 70s) have been pioneers of this approach.

The body plays a main role in David's work. With his keen eye, the artist digs the humanity that hides behind those corporal prowess. With subtlety, the photograph captures the body from an unprecedented angle and in unusual images. His photographs reveal individuals eager to exist through their bodies. They sculpt and model their bodies in order to build a personality and depict it with finesse and complexity, far from all the prejudices. Being an old bodybuilder, he manages to grasp the shades of an extreme practice. He brilliantly combines tenderness with this environment devoid of delicacy.

The artist confided during an interview for Télérama "I wanted to do the opposite of what we normally see. The backstage is normally forbidden to photographers, often parked in front of the stage. We can never see an athlete in his bubble. I have tried to grasp their feelings as they prepare, concentrate, relax, immerse in their thoughts, or doubts. My goal is to show them again as human beings, specially not in the representation of themselves. I photograph an orchesta director, the same way that I will a bodybuilder or a prostitute: human beings who are preparing, waiting, in their intimacy.

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